Gluteus Exercises For Beginners: Glute Bridge and Its Variations

A glute bridge is an exercise that includes thrusting your hips upwards while resting on your back. It's a simple at-home exercise that can improve glute strength, core stability, and lower back health while requiring no equipment.

This exercise focuses on the posterior chain or the rear of your legs. Your hamstrings and gluteus are the primary movers in your posterior chain.

How To Do A Glute Bridge?

• Lay down on your back.
• Bend your knees and feet flat on the ground.
• Place your arms at your sides, palms facing downwards.
• Raise your hips off the ground until they make a straight line with your knees, hips, and shoulders. Squeeze your gluteus firmly.
• Allow your hips to descend back down to the ground in a smooth motion. It brings us to the end of one repetition.
• Perform 3 rounds of a 30-second hold or 3 sets of 15 repetitions.

Benefits Of Glute Bridge Exercise

The Glute Bridge exercise is ideal for an at-home workout as it requires no equipment and takes up very little space. Regularly doing a bridge exercise has a variety of advantages, including:

• Better Posture

When performing glute bridges frequently, you are strengthening your gluteus and lower back muscles, which are responsible for keeping your body upright. Strengthening your gluteus and erector spinae will help you maintain a good posture throughout the day, whether you're standing or sitting. 

• Strengthen your Core

Though the glute bridge mainly targets the buttocks, it also works to activate and strengthen your core stabilizer muscles. This movement helps flatten your stomach by focusing on your abs and working the obliques, all of which help properly define your waistline.

• Tone and shape your butt

The gluteus maximus muscle, the largest in the buttocks, is the principal muscle used in the bridge. And it will help tone your buttocks and give you the shape you desire!

• Stronger back

Glute bridges safely and effectively work the posterior muscles while training the butt extension muscles.

The muscles that make up your posterior chain are the most important in your body. These muscles, which go all the way from your calves, gluteus, hamstrings to your lower back, are critical for healthy mobility, good posture, athletics, and a pain-free back.

Variations

• Dumbbell glute bridges

Photo: Youtube @Jacob Wright

Dumbbell glute bridges are a terrific choice for increasing glute engagement before a lower-body workout or simply to get dormant gluteus to work again.

When you perform it, lie down on your back and fold your legs so that they can rest on your feet at a 45-degree angle at the knees. Place the dumbbell on your hip flexors (upper thigh). Return to starting posture by thrusting/pushing your hips towards the ceiling.

• Single leg elevated glute bridges

Photo: Youtube @AchieveFitnessBoston

A single-leg glute bridge is a unilateral glute bridge that targets hamstrings, hip flexors, lower back muscles, and gluteal muscles (including the gluteus maximus, medius, and minimus).

To perform, tighten your abdominal and buttock muscles, raise your hips to create a straight line from your knees to shoulders, slowly raise and extend one leg while keeping your pelvis raised and level. Return to the starting position with knees bent.

SAFETY AND PRECAUTIONS

Glute bridges, when done correctly, are safe for most exercisers, even so, there are a few things you can take to ensure that you're performing the exercise correctly—and thus securely.

If you have any injury or certain medical condition where your body is trying to recover, it's always better to avoid workouts or physical movements that impact them.

You should avoid doing Glute Bridge exercise: 

• If you are in the final stage of Pregnancy or just delivered.
• If you are healing from surgery.
• If you are suffering from back, abdomen, knees, or ankle injury.

For precautions,

• Always warm-up before starting a workout.
• If you're new to exercising, start with small reps. As your strength improves, gradually increase the reps.
• If you feel any pain in the lower back while performing Glute Bridge, STOP.

• Always work out under the guidance of professional trainers.